EXCERPT OF THE NOTE OF MARCH 13, 1942, FROM
AMBASSADOR BOGOMOLOV TO MR. RACZYNSKI, POLISH
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, IN REPLY TO HIS NOTE
OF JANUARY 28, 1942.
. . . The Soviet Government cannot agree to the statements contained
in Your Excellency's Note. . . .
... In the reply by M. V. M. Molotov's Note of November 8, 1941,
addressed to M. Kot, and in the Aide-Memoire of the People's Commissariat
for Foreign Affairs of November 19, it had already been announced that
the amnesty to Polish citizens had been strictly carried out. An appropriate
investigation conducted by competent Soviet authorities after the conversa-
tion held on December 4, 1941, between the Polish Prime Minister, General
Sikorski, and the Chairman of the People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R.,
J. V. Stalin, completely confirmed the above statement; besides the
People's Commissar in the spirit of his Note No. 6 of January 9, 1942,
addressed to the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, gave additional
detailed explanations on the carrying out of the amnesty in favour of Polish
citizens.
As the Polish officers and soldiers were liberated on the same basis as
other Polish citizens under the Decree of August 12, 1941, all that has been
said above applies equally to the Polish officers and soldiers.
As regards the statements contained in Your Excellency's Note alleging
that there are still Polish officers who have not yet been set free, and that
some of them are on Franz-Joseph and Nova Zemla islands, and the banks
of the River Kolyma, it must be stated that these assertions are without
foundation and obviously based on inaccurate information. In any case,
whenever it is learned that there are certain isolated instances of delay in
setting free Polish citizens, the competent Soviet authorities immediately
take measures necessary for their release.
EXCERPT OF THE POLISH NOTE OF JULY 6, 1942, PRO-
TESTING AGAINST THE INFRINGEMENT OF THE
DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY OF THE POLISH EMBASSY'S DELE
GATE IN ARCHANGEL, AND AGAINST THE ARREST OF
HIS STAFF.
On July 2, 1942, at about 4 p.m., Mr. Jozef Gruja, Polish Embassy
Delegate in Archangel, 2nd Secretary of the Polish Embassy, was obliged
to go on official business to Murmansk, leaving behind as his deputy in
Archangel (in agreement with the local authorities) Mr. Waldemar
Kuczynski, one of his officials. A few hours after the Embassy Delegate
had left, three officials of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs,
accompanied by two women employed in the local Inturist Hotel, entered
the office of the Archangel Delegate, carried out a thorough search and for
several hours questioned the officials present in the Delegate's office.
Finally, according to information received by the Embassy, the officials of
the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs took the liberty of removing
all the archives and official correspondence of the Embassy Delegate in
Archangel, his seal and his money, and, after having arrested the officials
of the Delegate's office, that is to say, the acting Embassy Delegate,
Waldemar Kuczynski, the storekeeper, Anna Witkowska5 the assistant
storekeeper, Marjan Pytlak, and office-worker Zdzislawa Wojcik, they drove
these persons away to an unknown destination, leaving with Mr. Kuczynskfs
wife previously prepared documents concerning the search they had
carried out.
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